Nine-year-old Kennedy James (not his real name) was diagnosed with tuberculosis (TB) when he was four years old but his sickness seems to have developed resistance over the years as he fails to effectively take his prescribed 10 tablets per day.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery day, Kennedy takes about 10 tablets, it is like a norm for him to do so because once he misses a day without taking the tablets, the situation gets worse,\u201d Kennedy\u2019s mother Tiyese James (not her real name) says.<\/p>\n
However, according to his mother, Kennedy sometimes refuses to take the medicine, saying it is bitter and too much to swallow. The medication makes him lose appet i te, resulting in his eating less and having a malnourished body.<\/p>\n
Going through the first line treatment of drug-sensitive TB followed by continuation phase, Kennedy cannot get better because sometimes her mother, out of remorse, does not force Kennedy to take his drugs, hence the prolonged sickness.<\/p>\n
However, with the coming in of new TB drugs on the market, the story of Kennedy and many other children suffering from TB in the country and in Africa has changed for the better.<\/p>\n
Children suffering from TB will now be treated with what the Ministry of Health and TB Alliance International are calling child-friendly medicines.<\/p>\n
This is part of efforts to improve treatment of the di s eas e among chi ldr en, according to the TB Alliance, an international Non-Government Organisation that is working with the government, among other partners like World Health Organisation (WHO), in the project.<\/p>\n
According to TB Alliance, the drugs are not new but are improved formulations that dissolve faster. They are flavoured to make them palatable for children. The medicines are a fixed combined dose of three drugs used to treat drug-sensitive TB (rifampicin, isoniazid and pyrazinamide).<\/p>\n
\u201cChild-friendly medicines improve the daily lives of children and their families struggling with TB. Six months is a long time to take medicine. But the availability of treatment that tastes good and is simple to provide will ease the daily struggles of children, parents and caregivers alike,\u201d explains part of the new drug report by TB Alliance quoted on BBC Focus on Africa.<\/p>\n
According to National TB Control Programme Director Dr James Mpunga, the fact of the matter is that this is not a new drug but rather this is a new formulation. He says WHO has advised countries to move from giving tablets to using water dissolvable tablets as the first guidelines set by WHO in 2010.<\/p>\n
He said, unlike before, children are now not supposed to swallow tablets but take drugs that have been dissolved in water.<\/p>\n
The new formulations, according to Mpunga, are child-friendly as they are more palatable and they can be taken in right quantities as opposed to what is currently happening.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe country has so far started procuring the drugs from the WHO procurement arm called Global Drug Facility (GDF).We expect the drugs to be in the country by June 2017 so that we can start using them by July 2017,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Mpunga adds that dosages have not changed; it is just the formulation that has changed. He says the duration of taking the dosage remains the same.<\/p>\n
However, he is quick to highlight that it is expected that better dosing will be achieved and possibly improve treatment outcomes, hence the goodness of this new formulation of drug.<\/p>\n
Unicef conquers with TB Alliance and WHO, saying the right medicines in the right doses will increase adherence and save more lives, adding that this is an important step in improving treatment and child survival from TB and slowing the spread of drug-resistant TB.<\/p>\n
At least one million children suffer from TB each year representing about 10-11 percent of all TB cases.<\/p>\n
In 2015, 170,000 children died of TB and there were an additional 40,000 TB deaths among children who were HIV-positive.<\/p>\n
TB in children can be treated with most children tolerating treatment very well.<\/p>\n
Currently, around the world, most children do not have access to TB medicines in proper doses or formulations.<\/p>\n
Care providers and parents have to crush adult pills to approximate the correct dose for children. This is a daily struggle \u2013 for six long months \u2013 and creates a guessing game of whether children receive the right dose. Ultimately, these medicines can negatively impact adherence, outcomes and fuel the development of drug-resistant TB.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe journey through my son\u2019s sickness has been tiresome, even now as we are sitting on this hospital bed but with the new formulated drug which doctors told us about, our current situation will be over as our children will yet be given this new and palatable drug, there is hope that all will be over and our children, apart from enjoying the treatment itself, they will be finally well and strong and simply go back to school,\u201d Tiyese says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nine-year-old Kennedy James (not his real name) was diagnosed with tuberculosis (TB) when he was four years old but his sickness seems to have developed resistance over the years as he fails to effectively take his prescribed 10 tablets per day. \u201cEvery day, Kennedy takes about 10 tablets, it is like a norm for him […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":43915,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43914"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43916,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43914\/revisions\/43916"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}